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....The sleight-of-hand begins with Maraniss's discussion of Obama's Hawaii mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. Predictably, Maraniss introduces Davis as "a black journalist, poet, civil rights activist, political leftist, jazz expert." True, Maraniss adds, Davis "had been under surveillance by the Honolulu bureau of the FBI because of his past associations with the Communist Party," but in progressive circles this qualifier would be read like a tribute.

Given the depth of his research, Maraniss had to know what he was hiding. "Here are the facts and they are indisputable," writes historian Paul Kengor in his soon-to-be released book, The Communist -- Frank Marshall Davis: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mentor: "Frank Marshall Davis was a pro-Soviet, pro-Red China, card-carrying member of Communist Party (CPUSA). His Communist Party card number was 47544."

The reason the Davis story has remained "untold" until now is because Maraniss and his peers consciously chose not to tell it. As Kengor points out, Maraniss wrote a 10,000-word piece for the Washington Post on Obama's early years in August 2008, and yet "there was not a single mention of Davis."

Maraniss can barely bring himself to talk about Davis in this lengthy book. He suggests, in fact, that Obama included "Frank" in his memoir, Dreams from My Father, because he "tended to focus on characters who could accentuate his journey toward blackness."

Kengor proves otherwise. As he observes, Obama dedicates 2,500 words in Dreams to Davis, who "surfaces repeatedly from start to finish, from Hawaii to Los Angeles to Chicago to Germany to Kenya ... from the 1970s to the 1980s to the 1990s."

Davis, in fact, played such an essential role in Obama's formation that, as Maraniss admits, he became "a subject of some of [Obama's] teenage poetry." Although I made this case in my 2011 book Deconstructing Obama and Kengor does as well, Maraniss is the first mainstream reporter to concede the obvious. ....

For the past four years, the media have chosen to keep the public in the dark about Barack Obama's Hawaii mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. The fact that Davis was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA, a published pornographer, and the subject of two-thirds of the poems the young Obama ever wrote (or had written for him) might have something to do with that.

As a public service to their neighbors in the village of Gilmanton Ironworks, New Hampshire, Skip and Cindy Houghton launched a humble educational campaign. They began by positioning a roughly 6' x 3' signboard outside their home with the message:

Frank Marshall Davis

Obama's

Mentor

Do You Know Him?

Not many people did. The Houghtons happily educated those who inquired. The usual response, says Cindy, was, "Gosh, I didn't know that."

Those who do know Davis recognized kindred spirits in the Houghtons and often stopped to talk. Billy Baer, attorney and Tea Party activist from New Jersey, was so impressed he visited the Houghtons for an hour and sent me the photo above.

The Houghtons continue their educational project in this crucial swing state. Their new sign: "Big government is on the move. Wake up." Hard to say it better in ten words or less.